A mobile communications device basically comprises an set of buttons and a joystick, a screen, by which the user is given feedback from the mobile communications device, and electronic circuitry providing the communication application by which the mobile communications device is able to communicate with other communications devices via a base station system.
A mobile communications device of this basic kind is well-known in the art and there is no need for any detailed description of this basic features of the mobile communications device.
As soon as the mobile communications device is turned on, the operating system of the mobile communications device starts running. The operating system handles e.g. the interaction between the display unit, the input unit, and the communications unit. The operating system also handles other kinds of applications, such as a contact management application, a calendar application, a settings application for setting the behaviour of the phone and its operating system, a web application, etc.
The operating system is adapted to in a desktop view show the different applications on the display unit in the form of so-called icons. The icons are basically graphic representations of imaginary start buttons. The user navigates, using the joystick or the buttons, between the icons on the desktop. Usually, one of the icons is always highlighted or otherwise indicated. When the user presses the arrow buttons or actuates the joystick, the icon being located adjacent, in the intended direction, the previously highlighted icon will be highlighted.
When the joystick or a physical selection button is pressed down, the application associated with the at the time highlighted icon is activated. The window of the thus activated application is shown on the screen of the mobile communications device. It is also common that each icon in the desktop view are entrances to another set of icons, usually presented as a list in order for the user to distinguish if he/she is on the top desktop level or at a lower level below an icon of the desktop level. When the icon of the list is selected the associated application is activated and as mentioned above the window of the application is shown in the window of the mobile communications device. When the user has done the desired operations within the application, the user exits the application. The user is at this point presented with the desktop or the list of icons depending on from where the applications was activated.
The users of the mobile communications devices want to have relatively small and lightweight devices. This in turn will give significant limitations concerning the available maximum size of the screen of the mobile communications device. Moreover, a larger screen will need more power than a smaller one, which in turn gives that a mobile communications device with a large screen will require a larger battery or will need to be recharged more often.
The user is presented with a plurality of icons on the rather limited size of the desktop. However, the number of icons is limited since each icon must be larger than a smallest acceptable size in order for the user to be able to easily distinguish what application or group of applications the respective icon is associated with.
As the mobile communications devices is provided with more and more applications, this navigation system will experience more short-comings. The applications must be grouped to a larger extent than before which will force the user to make a more complex navigation in order to reach the desired application. Since the mobile communications device need to be small, the navigation tools, such as buttons and joystick, are also subject to size limitations. This size limitation of the navigation tools will, in combination with the complex navigation, introduce a ergonomical risk to the user. When using the joystick, the user will e.g. be moving his/hers thumb a lot and in a complex movement patterns. Moreover, the user will have to have a strong focus on the screen which will strain the users eye.
These problems have become especially aggravated by the introduction of web browsers in the mobile communications devices. It is difficult to navigate through a web content using the above described navigation.